At just 18 years of age Tepai Moeroa burst on to the scene in 2014. A hard-hitting, hard-running, future NRL great it seemed. It's been 5 years and we are still yet to see anything close to him reaching his once massive potential. In my opinion his ability is below the standard of the average NRL player and he is one of the weakest players in our team. So where did it all go wrong?
Ive watched Tepai Moeroa with a very close eye in 2019 trying to figure out his weaknesses and strengths and this is what I have gathered
Strengths:
- puts his body on the line
- safe with the ball (doesnt make many errors)
Weaknesses:
- doesnt make any post contact metres
- doesnt have a passing game
- rarely breaks a tackle
- rarely offloads
- concedes many penalties
- constantly gets stuck in the ruck
- lack of football intelligence
2019 Stats:
- only 4 offloads all season
- 11 penalties conceded (by far most out of any eels players this season)
- 0 linebreaks
- 0 linebreak assists
- 0 tries
- 0 try assists
- 0 try contributions
As you can see by his stats he is not an attacking threat to oppositions at all. I think I could safely say that Tepai Moeroa has the weakest attack out of any backrower in the NRL. So what does he offer to the team? Quality defence? After watching his game closely I think not.
I believe by far his biggest weakness is getting himself stuck in the ruck, it seems as though every second tackle he makes he is either stuck in the ruck or lying behind the play the ball. This leaves us short giving all the momentum to the opposition for the next few tackles which usually results in conceding a penalty or a linebreak. In modern rugby league, momentum is one of the biggest factors towards a team winning a game. To the beat the Eels all you have to do is target Tepai Moeroa in defence and you'll be on your way.
So why has a player with such high potential become such a failure? I have a few theories:
Theories:
- he has been failed by our coaching staff (i would like to talk about this more in depth in another discussion)
- he doesnt have the footballing intelligence to take his game to the next level
- beginning his career too early caused him problems with concussions/injuries which resulting in him being lesser of a player
- never had the potential in the first place
- has not put in the hard work to improve his own game
It could be a combination of these things. What do you guys think? I would love to hear from anyone that thinks Tepai Moeroa has something valuable to offer to the team.
Just want to put it out there that this is not a personal attack on Tepai Moeroa, I have huge respect for him as a man and I think he truly loves this club like all us fans do. I just dont think he has the footballing abilty to be an above average NRL player.
Replies
Cant argue with any of this, no killer instinct.
Tepai should be a wide running try scorer but BA stuck him in the middle to help out his duds. The list is endless who BA has brought to their knees.
Mate its so true. I know hes a cult hero but hes like Curtis Sireon. Barely plays and when he does its crap anyway. He doesnt offer anything. These are the tough decision Arthur needs to make. The Roosters have been doing this for year, If you have 2 bad seasons you ARENT there for the third.
It’s a classic example of throwing a guy into the top flight NRL to early.
At 18 his body has been roll bowled and arse holed.Throw in the head knocks which there have been a lot and we probably never will see the true potential of Tepai Moeora.
This is the an issue with the stupidity of the NRL using the 20s as there feeder to the top grade it just doesn’t give enough time for these kids to mature physically or mentally to the grind of the NRL.
Here in lies the big reason why Moeora has turned into the guy he is today.
And another reason why leaving Stephano Utoikamanu and even Oregon Kaufusi in NSW Cup is a good thing. Let them grow into their bodies first.
Tepai is not a middle forward, he’s an edge forward but with the likes of Lane, Ma’u & Niukore all ahead of him on form & better then him in all around potential unfortunately the middle is only position he can play for us. I wouldn’t re-sign him I would move him onto a club where he can play his preferred role on the edge.
Exactly, after his first season and owing to his actual build he was playing mainly on the edge, and breaking the line fairly often. However he then was alternating between prop as replacement and only occassionally on the edge, in those years he looked flabbyer than he does today. Is not making the impact in running and he actually looks fitter and more solid, similar in some respects to Alvaro, although Tepai does not look to be like Alvaro as far as fitness levels are concerned.
He has also reverted to his early idea of thinking that in being like a cockroach or goana he can crawl over a tackled player and get away with, and that is more often when defending the try line. I think much of his ability is more in keeping that he thinks he is better than he is and its those around him that are not performing and they should be playing harder than himself.
To me its a shame as he really is a wasted talent and has only himself to blame for his being dropped to Wenty, the club and coaching staff have had enough of players who are not doing their jobs.
I’m not sure what happened to him. At one stage it looked like he could be the next Sonny Bill Williams as hilarious as that seems now. His body shape has changed, his mentality has changed and his game has changed. None of it in a good way.
I argued way back when people were making comparisons between him & Pauli Pauli that even though he was the more consistent and more polished of the two, I would've kept PP over Tep simply because I always thought Tep had a much lower ceiling than PP.
Even though he was impressive when BA gave him his first shot, there's no doubt he hasn't really gotten better. The chopping and changing between middle & right edge hasn't helped, neither did the shoulder injury or the HIA's, but even still, I've always suspected that this was his ceiling more or less.
I wouldn't think of him as a priority resigning.
BTW, if memory serves, it was Ham Sammich who really pushed his case when he was a teenager.
I think one of the issues is that he's been moved into the middle a lot recently but he came through the grades as a centre/back-rower.
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